With rail blockades in place on CN's busy Kingston Sub between Toronto and Montreal in support of Wet'suwet'en First Nation hereditary chiefs who oppose a natural gas pipeline in the province of British Columbia, the railway has been doing what it can to reroute priority traffic. Pictured here, detour train X453 is taking the scenic route on the normally sleepy Newmarket Sub. It will be turned over to an Ontario Northland Railway crew in about 35 miles for the trek from North Bay to Rouyn-Noranda via Englehart and then handed back to CN. From there, the long journey through northern Quebec begins over the Joliet Sub and eventually on to Montreal. With a lack of siding capacity, this is a 3-4 day trip with meets handled by doubling trains over in yards or backtracks, compared to a half day on double track from Toronto to Montreal. It does selfishly make for some great photo opportunities on a line that sees only 4 regular day-time trains a week.
